From Dr. Lauren Deville - Naturopathic Doctor
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, means that the heart has to push harder than it should to get the blood to the entire body. There are two blood pressure numbers: systolic (the top number) and diastolic (the bottom number). Systolic indicates the pressure at the heart’s maximum contraction, while diastolic indicates the remaining pressure when [...]
From Dr. Lauren Deville - Naturopathic Doctor
About 50% of women experience “baby blues,” or a brief period of mild depression for a few days to a few weeks after giving birth. But 10-20% will suffer more severe postpartum depression. Every pregnant woman has very high levels of hormones (estrogen, progesterone, prolactin, and oxytocin) when pregnant, and these hormones plummet precipitously after [...]
From Dr. Lauren Deville - Naturopathic Doctor
I wrote here on the basic theory of what inflammation is. Briefly: in initial stages, inflammation is part of non-specific immunity. It just means something hurts and your immune system calls all hands on deck to deal with it. In later stages, inflammation becomes specific: this means your immune system is carefully targeting a specific invader, [...]
From Dr. Lauren Deville - Naturopathic Doctor
The power of naturopathic medicine is in the philosophy: remove obstacles to cure and give the body the building blocks it needs to heal itself, and within reason, healing will follow. I prefer not to give supplements to treat symptoms, because that approach doesn’t get to the root cause… but in the short term, sometimes [...]
From Dr. Lauren Deville - Naturopathic Doctor
Oxygen is probably the most fundamental building block necessary for health, and it’s certainly the one without which we’d die quickest. Individual tissues will become infected and die for lack of oxygen, too—which can occur with poor blood flow. With just suboptimal oxygen levels, you'll feel fatigued, lethargic, and short of breath. Oxygen as a therapy [...]
From Dr. Lauren Deville - Naturopathic Doctor
Food cravings are quite common—according to this study of a thousand college students, 97% of women and 68% of men experience them, on average two to four times per week. (Chocolate was the most commonly craved food, if you were wondering—especially among the women. Shocking, I know.) But why do cravings happen in the first [...]
From Dr. Lauren Deville - Naturopathic Doctor
There are two main antibodies involved in Hashimoto’s: anti-thyroid peroxidase (TPO) and anti-thyroglobulin. The elevation of these antibodies mean that the immune system is attacking and destroying two of the necessary components of thyroid hormone. Thyroglobulin is a precursor for thyroxine (T4), the primary hormone produced in the thyroid gland. So attacking this means you [...]
From Dr. Lauren Deville - Naturopathic Doctor
Far and away the most common causes of hair loss are hypothyroidism, low ferritin, and high androgen levels (such as testosterone, androstenedione, and DHEA). Less common but still prevalent are the apparently autoimmune condition alopecia areata, and the stress-induced telogen effluvium. But one I also see quite a bit is biotoxin-related hair loss, due to [...]
Some 6 million people in the United States suffer from Bipolar Disorder. Research indicates that genetic factors account for about 80% of it. It is widely believed to be incurable and lifelong, able to be managed only with antipsychotic medications. But it may have a surprising cause. Iodine and Bipolar [...]
Physiology 101 Insulin is the gatekeeper for glucose: it allows glucose to get inside the cells where it can be utilized for energy or for storage. When glucose gets used, your cells produce ATP (your body’s energy currency). When glucose gets stored, it gets stored as triglycerides (fat). Insulin is [...]
